Kureha Suzuka: The Haunted Mask
by dec181985
Summary: How ugly is Kureha Suzuka's mask? It's so ugly that it almost scared her little brother to death. So terrifying that even her friends are totally freaked out by it. It's the best Halloween mask ever. It's everything Kureha hoped it would be. And more. Maybe too much more. Because Halloween is almost over. And Kureha is still wearing that special mask...
1. Chapter 1

Kureha Suzuka: The Haunted Mask  
Chapter 1

"What are you going to be for Halloween?" Sakura Rokujo asked. She moved her fork around on her lunch tray, but didn't take a bite.  
Kureha Suzuka sighed and shook her head. The overhead light on the lunchroom ceiling made her straight blonde hair gleam. "I don't know. A witch, maybe."  
Sakura's mouth dropped open. "You? A witch?"  
Well, why not?" Kureha demanded, staring across the long table at her friend.  
"I thought you were afraid of witches," Sakura replied. She raised a forkful of macaroni to her mouth and started to chew. "This macaroni is made of rubber," she complained, chewing hard "Remind me to start packing a lunch."  
"I am not afraid of witches!" Kureha insisted, her dark eyes flashing angrily. "You just think I'm a big scaredy-cat, don't you!"  
Sakura giggled. "Yes." She flipped her pink ponytail behind her shoulders with a toss of her head. "Hey, don't eat the macaroni. Really, Kureha. It's gross." She reached across the table to keep Kureha from raising her fork fork.  
"But I'm starving!" Kureha complained.  
The lunchroom grew crowded and noisy. At the next table, a group of fifth-grade boys were tossing a half-full milk carton back and forth. Kureha saw Takeru Inukal ball up a bright red fruit rollup and shove the whole sticky thing in his mouth.  
"Yuck!" She made a disgusted face at him. Then she turned back to Sakura. "I am not a scaredy-cat, Sakura. Just because everyone picks on me and - "  
"Kureha, what about last week? Remember? At my house?" Sakura ripped open a bag of tortilla chips and offered some across the table to her friend.  
"You mean the ghost thing?" Kureha replied, frowning. "That was really stupid."  
"But you believed it," Sakura said with a mouthful of chips. "You should of seen the look on your face when the ceiling started to creak, and we heard the footsteps up there."  
"That was so mean," Kureha complained, rolling her eyes.  
"Then when you heard footsteps coming down, your face went all white and you screamed," Sakura recalled. "It was only Takeru and Ranmaru."  
"You know I'm afraid of ghosts," Kureha said, blushing.  
"And snakes and bugs and loud noises and dark rooms and - and witches!" Sakura declared.  
I don't see why you have to make fun of me," Kureha pouted. She shoved her lunch tray away. "I don't see why everyone always thinks it's so much fun to try to scare me. Even you. my best friend."  
"I'm sorry," Sakura said sincerely. She reached across the table and squeezed Kureha's wrist reassuringly. "You're just so easy to scare. It's hard to resist. Here. Want some more chips?" She shoved the bag toward Kureha.  
"Maybe I'll scare you some day," Kureha threatened.  
Her friend laughed. "No way!"  
Kureha continued to pout. She was eleven. Nut she was tiny. And with her round face and stub of a nose (which she hated and wished would grow longer), she looked much younger.  
Sakura, on the other hand, was tall, dark, and sophisticated-looking. She had straight pink hair tied behind her head in a ponytail, and enormous, dark eyes. Everyone who saw them together assumed that Sakura was twelve or thirteen. But actually, Kureha was a month older than her friend.  
"Maybe I won't be a witch," Kureha said thoughtfully, resting her chin on her hands, "Maybe I'll be a disgusting monster with hanging eyeballs and green slime dripping down my face and -"  
A loud xrash made Kureha scream.  
It took her a few seconds to realize that it was just a lunch tray hitting the floor. She turned to see Ichiro Hanazano, his face bright red, drop to his knees and start scooping his lunch off the floor. The lunchroom rang out with cheers and applause.  
Kureha hunched down in her seat, embarrassed that she had screamed.  
Her breathing had just returned to normal when a strong hand grabbed her shoulder from behind.  
Kureha's shriek echoed through the room.


	2. Chapter 2

She heard laughter. At another table, someone yelled, "Way to go, Ranmaru?"  
She whipped her head around to see her friend, Ranmaru Shindo standing behind her, a mischievous grin on his face. "Gotcha," he said, letting go of her shoulder.  
Ranmaru pulled out the chair next to Kureha's and lowered himself over its back. His best friend Takeru Inakul, slamed his bookbag onto the table and then sat down next to Sakura.  
Ranmaru and Takeru looked so much alike, they could have been brothers. Both were tall and thin, with straight blonde hair, Ranmaru had orange in his hair. Both had dark blue eyes and goofy grins. Both wore faded blue jeans and dark-colored, long-sleeved T-shirts.  
And both of them loved ton scare Kureha. They loved to startle her, to make her jump and shriek.  
They spent hours dreaming up new ways to frighten her.  
She vowed every time that she would never - never - fall for one of their stupid tricks again.  
But so far, they had won every time.  
Kureha always threatened to pay them back. But all the time they'd been friends, she hadn't been able to think of anything good enough.  
Takeru reached for the few remaining chips in Sakura's bag. She playfully slapped his hand away. "Get your own."  
Ranmaru held a crinkled hunk of aluminum foil under Kureha's nose. "Want a sandwich? I don't want it."  
Kureha sniffed it suspiciously. "What kind is it? I'm starving!"  
"It's a turkey sandwich. Here," Ranmaru said, handing it to Kureha. "It's too dry. My mom forgot the mayo. You want it?"  
"Yeah, sure. Thanks!" Kureha exclaimed. She took the sandwich and peeled back the aluminum foil. Then she took a big bite of the sandwich.  
As she started to chew, she realized that both Ranmaru and Takeru were staring at her with big grins on their faces.  
Something tasted funny. Kind of sticky and sour.  
Kureha stopped chewing.  
Takeru and Ranmaru were laughing now. Sakura looked confused.  
Kureha uttered a disgusted groan and spit the chewed-up sandwich hunk into a napkin. Then she pulled the apart - and saw a big brown worm resting on top of the turkey.  
"Ohh!" With a moan, she covered her face with her hands.  
The room erupted with laughter. Cruel laughter.  
"I ate a worm. I-I'm going to be sick!" Kureha groaned. She jumped to her feet and stared at Ranmaru. "How could you?" she demanded. "It isn't funny. "It's - it's - "  
"It isn't a real worm," Takeru said. Ranmaru was laughing too hard to talk.  
"Huh?" Kureha gazed down at it and felt a wave of nausea rise up from her stomach.  
"It isn't real. It's rubber. Pick it up," Takeru urged.  
Kurehahesitated.  
Kids all through the vast room were whispering and pointed at her. And laughing.  
"Go ahead. It isn't real. Pick it up," Takeru said, grinning.  
Kureha reached down with two fingers and reluctantly picked the brown worm from the sandwich. It felt warm and sticky.  
"Gotcha again!" Takeru said with a laugh.  
It was real! A real worm!  
With a horrified cry, Kureha tossed the worm at Takeru, who was laughing wildly. Then she leapt away from the table, knocking the chair over. As the chair clattered noisily against the hard floor, Kureha covered her mouth and ran gagging from the lunchroom.  
I can still taste it! she thought.  
I can still taste the worm in my mouth!  
I'll pay them back for this, Kureha thought bitterly as she ran.  
I'll pay them back. I really will.  
As she pushed through the double doors and hurtled toward the girls' room, the cruel laughter followed her across the hall.


	3. Chapter 3

After school, Kureha hurried through the halls without talking to anyone. She heard kids laughing and whispering. She knew they were laugh at her.  
Word had spread all over school that Kureha Suzuka had eaten a worm at lunch.  
Kureha, the scaredy-cat. Kureha, who was frightened of her own shadow. Kureha, who was so easy to trick.  
Takeru and Ranmaru had sneaked a real worm, a fat brown, into a sandwich. And Kureha had taken a big bite.  
What a jerk!  
Kureha ran all the way home, three longblocks. Her anger grew with every step.  
How could they do that to me? They're supposed to be my friends!"  
Why do they think it's so funny to scare me?  
She burst into the house, breathing hard. "Anybody home?" she called, stopping in the hallway and leaning against the banister to catch her breath.  
Her mother hurried out from the kitchen. "Kureha! Hi! What's wrong?"  
"I ran all the way," Kureha told her, pulling off her blue windbreaker.  
"Why?" Mrs. Suzuka asked.  
"Just felt like it," Kureha replied moodily.  
Her mother took Kureha's windbreaker and hung it in the front closet for her. Then she brushed a hand affectionately through Suzuka's soft blonde her. "Where'd you get straight hair?" she muttered. Her mother was always saying that.  
We don't look like mother and daughter at all, Kureha realized. Her mother was a tall, chubby woman with thick curls of coppery hair, and lively gray-green eyes. She was extremely energetic, seldom stood still, and talked as rapidly as she moved.  
Today she was wearing a paint-stained gray sweatshirt over black Lycra tights. "Why so grumpy?" Mrs. Suzuka asked. "Anything you'd care to talk about?"  
Kureha shook her head. "Not really." She didn't feel like telling her mother that she had become the laughingstock of Machida Middle School.  
"Come here. I have something to show you," Mrs. Suzuka said, tugging Kureha toward the living room.  
"Come on!" her mother insisted, and pulled her across the hallway. Kureha always found it impossible to argue with her mother. She was like a hurricane, sweeping everything in her direction.  
"Look!" Mrs. Suzuka declared, grinning and gesturing to the mantelpiece.  
Kureha followed her mother's gaze to the mantel - and cried out in surprise. "It's - a head!"  
"Not just any head," Mrs. Suzuka said, beaming. "Go on. Take a closer look."  
Kureha took a few steps toward the mantelpiece, her eyes on the head staring back at her. It took her a few moments to recognize the straight, blonde hair, the blue eyes, the short snip of a nose, the round cheeks. "It's me!" she cried, walking up to it.  
"Yes. Life size!" Mrs. Suzuka declared. "I just came from my art class at the museum. I finished it today. What do you think?"  
Lureha picked it up and studied it closely. "It looks just like me, Mom. Really. What's it made of?"  
"Plaster of Paris," her mother replied, taking it from Kureha and holding it up so that Kureha was face to face, eye to eye with herself. "You have yo be careful. It's delicate. It's hollow, see?"  
Kureha stared intently at the head, peering into her own eyes. "It - it's kind of creepy," she muttered.  
"You mean because I did a good job?" her mother demanded.  
"It's just creepy, that's all," Kureha said. She forced herself to look away from the replica of herself, and saw that her mother's smile had faded.  
Mrs. Suzuka looked hurt. "Don't you like it. "Don't you like it?"  
"Yeah. Sure. It's really good, Mom," Kureha answered quickly. But, I mean, why on earth did you make it?"  
"Because I love you," Mrs. Suzuka replied curtly. "Why else? Honestly, Kureha, you hve the strangest reactions to things. I worked really hard on this sculpture. I thought - "  
"I'm sorry, Mom. I like it. Really, I do," Kureha insisted. "It was just a surprise, that's all."  
Kureha took another long look at the sculpture. Its blue eyes - her blue eyes - stared back at her. The blonde hair shimmered in the afternoon sunlight through the window.  
It smiled at me! Kureha thought, her mouth dropping open. I saw it! I just saw it smile!  
No. It had to be a trick of the light.  
It was a plaster of Paris head, she reminded herself.  
Don't go scaring yourself over nothing, Kureha. Haven't you made a big enough fool of yourself today?  
"Thanks for showing it to me, Mom," she said awkwardly, pulling her eyes away. She forced a smile. "Two heads are better than one, right?"  
"Right," Mrs. Suzuka agreed brightly. "Incidentally, Kureha, your duck costume is all ready. I put it on your bed."  
"Huh? Duck costume?"  
"You saw a duck costume at the mall, remember?" Mrs. Suzuka carefully placed the sculpted head on the mantel. "The one with all the feathers and everything. You thought it would be funny to be a duck this Halloween? So I made you a duck costume."  
" ," Kureha said, her mind spinning. Do I really want to be a stupid duck this Halloween? she thought. "i'll go up and take a look at it, Mom. Thanks."  
Kureha had forgotten all about the duck costume. I don't want to be cute this Halloween, she thought as she climbed the stairs to her room. I want to be scary.  
She had seen some really scary-looking masks in the window of a party store that had opened a few blocks from school. One of them, she knew, would be perfect.  
But now she'd have to walk around in feathers and have everyone quack at her and make fun of her.  
It wasn't fair. Why did her mother have to listen to every word she said?  
Just because Kureha had admired a duck costume in a store didn't mean she wanted to be a stupid duck for Halloween!  
Kureha hesitated outside her bedroom. The door had been pulled closed for some reason. She never closed the door.  
She listened carefully. She thought someone breathing on the other side of the door. Someone or something.  
The breathing grew louder.  
Kureha pressed an ear to the door.  
What was in her room?  
There was only one way to find out.  
Kureha pulled open the door - and uttered a startled cry.


End file.
